Quad Wicket Exchange System

ABSTRACT

Two series of work products move along parallel paths into open bags mounted on wickets and carry the bags to shipping containers. When the bags on the wickets are depleted, the wickets are automatically removed and replaced by wickets loaded with a new supply of bags.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority with respect to U.S. provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 62/274,454, filed in the U.S. Patent and TrademarkOffice on Jan. 4, 2016.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A typical commercial bakery mass production system for bread and rollsproducts moves dough continuously through a series of processing devicesand finally into bags or other receptacles to be delivered to the retailstore and to other customers. A dough processing system may includedough mixer and a dough pump as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,449,908that moves the dough from the mixer in a stream through a dough dividerthat forms the stream of dough in separate volumes for baking. A doughdivider is described in U.S. Pat. 4,332,538. From the divider the doughmay pass through rounder bars that form the dough into desired shapes asdescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,008,025. The shaped separate volumes ofdough then may pass through an open ended oven that progressively cooksthe dough.

The final products may be loaves of bread or smaller products such ashamburger and hot dog buns. After loaves of bread have been baked theycontinue their movement and usually are placed in bags.

A prior art bread bagging system, sometimes referred to as a “breadbagger,” is placed in line at the end of the bread processing systemdescribed above. Each loaf of bread is moved in sequence into an openbag. A currently used prior art bread bagger is a single line bagger andit includes a bagging “wicket” that has a bag support tray that supportsa vertical stack of bags with the bag openings facing the on-comingloaves of bread. The bags in the stack are closed and lie on theirsides. The uppermost bag in the stack is opened with a stream of air,with its open end facing the on-coming loaf of bread for receiving theloaf of bread. As a loaf of bread continues its movement into the topbag in the stack of bags, the loaf of bread pushes against the closedend of the its bag and tears its bag away from the stack of bags on thewicket tray, and the now bagged loaf moves onto a surface conveyor andto a packing station where the bagged loaves are placed in containersfor shipment.

A wicket that is used in the bread bagger includes a bag support traythat has an upwardly facing horizontal bag support surface. It alsoincludes an inverted U-shaped wicket bar with legs that fit downwardlyinto openings in the bag support surface. A plurality of wicket bags arestacked flat on the horizontal bag support surface and the wicket bagsare positioned with the bag openings all facing the on-coming loaves ofbread in the processing line so that the loaves of bread may be pushedthrough the bag openings and into the wicket bags. The wicket bags havea lower side longer than the upper side, and retaining holes are formedat the edge on the longer side. The inverted U-shaped wicket bar has itsends inserted through the aligned retaining holes in the wicket bags andinto support holes of the bag support surface so that the wicket boardand its U-shaped rod maintain the bags with the openings of the bags tobe faced toward the on-coming loaves of bread.

A stream of air is directed toward the open end of the uppermost bag onthe wicket and the air blows the top bag open to receive an on-comingloaf of bread being pushed into the bag. The movement of the loaf ofbread along the processing line and into the uppermost wicket bag andagainst the closed end of the bag tears the upper bag away from thewicket. The now bagged loaf of bread continues with its movement onto asurface conveyor for delivery to a shipping container. Usually, theoperation of the above described bagging process is continuous until thesupply of bread bags on the bag support tray is exhausted.

When the bread bags have been exhausted from the wicket support tray,the empty bag support tray must be removed from its position in theprocessing line and replaced by a full bag support tray. The task ofreplacing an empty wicket tray with a loaded wicket tray requires themovement of the bagging line to be terminated and the replacement isdone manually and is difficult. The empty bag support tray must beremoved and a loaded bag support tray must be carefully and firmlyplaced in its position in a receptacle of the framework of the machine.

If two prior art bagging lines as described above were put together in aside-by-side arrangement, the manual replacement of wickets in the twomachines would likely be even more difficult and more time consumingthan twice the time required for a single processing line. The baggingprocess of such a double machine would likely have to pause to allow theoperator to retrieve the empty wicket and mount a full wicket securelyand accurately in the system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention presented herein concerns a bagger for placing loaves ofbread, buns or other work products in bags. The invention includes a bagsupport wicket and a substitute bag support wicket, and an automatedwicket reloading apparatus, so that when the bag support wicket givesout of bags and is empty, the empty wicket is automatically removed fromthe processing line and sent to a reloading station, and a substituteloaded wicket automatically replaces the empty wicket in the baggingmachine.

Also, the reloading system may be used on a dual line bread and bunsbagger, in which two reloading systems work side-by-side independentlyof each other to reload the two bagging machines with full wickets.

More particularly, the new dual lane bread and buns bagger has beendeveloped that uses most of the principles of operation of the prior artsingle lane bagger described above. The dual lane bagging system has twolanes through which the bread and buns are aligned both longitudinallyand laterally and may be bagged simultaneously.

Briefly described, this invention concerns an improved method andapparatus for automatically and expediently and simultaneously baggingloaves of bread that move in parallel paths from an open endedcontinuous baking oven of the type described above. This new system isdesigned for a dual lane bread and buns bagger, has four wickets, two ofthe wickets that are in operation as described above to apply bags aboutthe bread and buns being pushed along the two processing paths, and twosubstitute wickets that are loaded with bags and are automatically movedfrom a refill station where they are available for immediate substitutefor an empty wicket in the bagger. When one or both of the bags on awicket become depleted, the empty wicket is automatically removed fromthe processing line and its loaded substitute wicket is automaticallymoved into the position vacated by the empty wicket.

The wicket exchange system includes two independent lanes of bag loadingzones that are each in line with one of the lanes of the bagging system,so two loaded substitute bags may be loaded individually orsimultaneously while the bagging system, continues to operate to fillbags with bread or buns. Any one or both of the bagging lanes can runout of bags at any time, allowing a full set to be delivered to theempty loading area independently of the other lane. When the emptywicket has been displaced with the full wicket, the empty wicket isdelivered back to an operator loading area where the operator removesthe empty wicket and places a full set of wicket bags back onto the bagsupport tray. Once the new bags have been placed on the empty bagsupport tray, this new full substitute wicket with its set of bagstravels to a stand-by position, ready for another exchange.

The exchange of wickets from the standby position to the loadinglocation can be accomplished on either lane, independent from oneanother. If lane “A” runs out of bags, the exchange can occur on lane“A”, not effecting the bags on lane “B”. After an exchange occurs, theempty wicket is delivered to a position where the machine operator cansafely remove the empty wicket and replace it with the wicket fullyloaded with bags. Once the new full set of wicket bags have been added,the operator activates a switch to send the new wicket bags to thestandby position to replace the wicket being used in the bagging line.

There are two wicket trays for each bread and buns bagger on each lane,one in operation to fill the bags with bread and buns and another beingrefilled with bags and waiting for movement in the bagging machine.

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent upon reading the following specification, when taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of the dual lane bagger that places theloaves of bread or buns in bags.

FIG. 2 is a top view of a bag support wicket, the U-shaped wicket bardisplaced at an angle from the bag support tray.

FIG. 3 is a bottom perspective view of the bag support tray, with thefront and bottom portions of stacked bags extending over the front andrear edges of the bag support tray.

FIG. 4 is a side perspective view of the bag support tray loaded withbread bags and with the wicket bar extending through the protruding longedges of the bread bags.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the movements of the four bag supportwickets through the apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a two lane bagger with the quad wicketexchange system mounted in alignment with the bread and buns bagger.

FIG. 7 is a side view of the quad wicket exchange system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now in more detail to the drawings, FIG. 1 is a top view ofthe multiple row bagger 10 that is positioned at the delivery end of apair of surface conveyors 11 and 12 that deliver loaves of bread or buns14, 15, 16 and 17, in pairs, in the direction as indicated by arrows 19and 20. The bread or buns 14-17 are moved into bags 21 and 22, primarilyby the motion of the surface conveyors, but as assisted by a pair ofspreader bars 23 and 24, respectively. In addition, streams of air aremoved from nozzles 25 and 26 toward the open ends of the bags so as toinduce the top layer about the bag opening to lift away from the bottomsurface of the bag, forming spaces in which the bread or buns 14-17move. The pusher forks 28 and 29 also move in unison with the surfaceconveyors to urge the bread or buns 14-17 into the bags 21 and 22.

Once the bags 21 and 22 have been substantially filled with pairs ofloaves of bread 14, 15, 16, 17, they move continuously with the motionsof the surface conveyors 11 and 12 to a lateral surface conveyor 31 thatmoves at a right angle with respect to the motions of the surfaceconveyors 11 and 12. In order to avoid misplacement of the loaves on thelateral surface conveyor 31, positioning blocks 23 are located behindeach anticipated space where the loaves of bread in their bags will bereceived. The surface conveyor moves the loaves of bread to a stagingposition where the loaves will be placed in containers for delivery tothe customers, etc.

FIGS. 2-4 illustrate one of the bag support wickets 35 that is to bepositioned at the location where the bread or buns are to be introducedinto the bags 21. FIG. 2 is a top view of the wicket tray that has aflat top surface 36, and a stack of bags 21 is placed on its side on thetop surface 36 of the wicket tray.

The length of the bags may be greater than the length of the flat topsurface 36 so that the open ends 38 of the bags are positioned at thefront edge 39 of the top surface 36 and the bottoms of the bags maydrape over the other edge.

The bottom sheet of each bag is longer than its top layer so that theedge of the bottom layer protrudes beyond the top layer. The protrudingedge of the bottom layer has wicket openings 41 formed therein. Aninverted U-shaped wicket bar 43 has its parallel legs 44 and 45 spacedapart distances equal to the spacing between wicket openings 41 so thatthe parallel legs 44 and 45 can be threaded through the wicket openingsin the bread bags 21 and 22. Another pair of openings (not shown) isformed through the flat top surface 36 of the bag support wicket tray,so that the parallel legs of the wicket bar fit into the top surface ofthe bag support wicket tray. This anchors the longer edges of thestacked bags to the wicket tray and when each bag is uncovered, thisallows the shorter edge to lift away from the longer edge in response toa stream of air to open the top bag in the stack of bags.

As shown in FIG. 1, the nozzles 25 and 26 direct a stream of air towardthe edges of the open ends of the bags, lifting the shorter edgeupwardly while passing over the rear edge that is anchored to the flattop surface of the bag support tray. This opens the top bag and makesthe top bag available to receive the loaves of bread 14-17, asillustrated in FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 3, the bottom surface 47 of the bag support wicket 35includes several locating pins 49 that extend at a right angle from thebottom surface of the bag support wicket and are spaced apart atdistances appropriate for the locating pins 49 to be received in sockets(not shown) in the surface of the conveyor system. This maintains thebag support wicket 35 in a static position as the surface conveyors movethe loaves toward the lateral surface conveyor 31.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the ends of the bags 38 may be allowed tooverlap the back edge of the flat top surface 36 of the bag supportwicket 35.

When the supply of bread bags 21 and 22 has been depleted and a newsupply of bags is required to continue the bagging process, the bagsupport trays can be automatically replaced when they are empty of bags.

Reloading the System

FIG. 5 illustrates a pattern of movements of the bag support wicketsthrough a bag reloading process. The bag support wicket 35 is shown atthe top left portion of FIG. 5 in position 1. The bread or buns willhave entered the space inside the top bag, as shown by arrow 51, withthe bread having been moved into the space 52. The bread will then havemoved on beyond that position as shown at 53, with the bread beingsafely received in the bag and moved to the next conveyor.

As the bags become finally depleted from the bag support wicket 35, thenow the empty wicket, will move downwardly, from position 1 as shown byarrow 61, through position 2 to corner position 3, then continuinglaterally from position 3 through space 4 and to corner space 5, andimmediately on upwardly to stop at retrieval space 6 where a person mayretrieve the empty wicket tray at position 7 and reload it.

The person will have a second tray previously loaded with bags atposition 8 and insert the previously loaded tray back into the systemwhich immediately moves the reloaded tray to position 9 and the reloadedtray moves laterally to standby position 10 where its movement isterminated until another cycle of the reloading system starts.

When the reloading system begins another loading cycle, the empty traymoves as previously described on through the position 2 so the reloadedtray can move through position 11 and then upwardly to the operativeposition 12. Only two wicket trays are required for the replacementsystem for each of the lines of bread moving through the overall system.

The system shown in FIG. 5 is provided for each side of the machine sothat the empty wickets of both sides of the process can be independentlyrefilled as needed.

As shown in FIG. 6, the wicket tray removal and replacement positionsfor both sides of the system at the removal and supply locations 7 and 8of FIG. 5 are shown and the footprints 58 and 59 of the attendant showwhere the trays can be refilled.

FIG. 7 also shows the system where the operator station 58 is located,and where the bag load station is located. The rails 72 and 73 and theirrespective chains guide the wickets from their operative positions totheir reloading positions and the elevator rails 74 and 75 guide thewickets vertically. The operation of the device is controlled by photosensors that detect the presence and absence of the bag support wicketsat the several stations of the system.

While the invention is described herein as a bagger for loaves of bread,it should be understood that the invention may be used for packing otherwork products.

Although a preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed indetail herein, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art thatvariations and modifications of the disclosed embodiment can be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as setforth in the following claims.

1. A process of bagging work products, comprising advancing two seriesof work products along parallel paths, in each of the parallel pathsplacing a stacked supply of flexible wicket bags on each of a pair ofbag support wicket trays at a bagging position with the openings of theflexible wicket bags in the stacked supplies of flexible wicket bagsfacing the advancing series of work products, directing a stream of airtoward the opening of the flexible wicket bag on the top of the stackedsupply of wicket bags to induce the flexible bag on top of the stack ofwicket bags to open, advancing the work products from the parallel pathsinto the inflated flexible wicket bags and against the closed ends ofthe wicket bags, separating the top wicket bag away from the otherwicket bags in the stacked supply in response to the movement of thework product against the closed end of the wicket bag, in response tothe last wicket bag being removed from a wicket tray, moving the wickettray to a position to be reloaded with flexible wicket bags, andreloading the moved wicket trays with more wicket bags.
 2. The processof claim 1, wherein each of the flexible wicket bags in the stacked bagshas a pair of opposed side walls with one side wall having a longer edgeportion, and aligned wicket openings formed in the longer edge portionsof the stacked bags, and extending the legs of a U-shaped wicket rodthrough the aligned openings of the wicket bags and into the trays. 3.The process of claim 1, and moving the reloaded wicket tray toward aposition facing the advancing series of work products at the loadingstation, terminating the movement of the reloaded tray in a standbyposition before it reaches the loading station.
 4. The process of claim3, and further including returning the reloaded tray from the standbyposition in response to removing a wicket tray from the baggingposition.
 5. A process of bagging work products comprising: advancing aseries of work products along parallel paths, placing stacked suppliesof flexible wicket bags on each of a pair of bag support wicket trayswith the openings of the flexible wicket bags in the stacked suppliesfacing the advancing series of work products, directing streams of airtoward the openings of the flexible wicket bags in directions to inflatethe opening of the flexible wicket bag on the top of the stackedsupplies to induce the flexible bags to open and simultaneouslyadvancing work products from the parallel paths into the inflatedflexible wicket bags.
 6. A process of bagging work products comprising:advancing two series of work products along parallel paths into openbags on the top of two supplies of bags, each mounted on a wicket,carrying the bags with the advancing work products away from eachwicket; in response to depleting the last bag on a wicket, removing thedepleted wicket and replacing the depleted wicket with a wicket having asupply of bags.